French Revolution, Stage II The Reign of Terror French Revolution, Stage II

Exterior and Interior of the Tulieres Palace

Storming of the Royal Palace August 10, 1792. Angry Parisian mobs attack the palace and slaughter palace guards. Royal family escapes to the Legislative Assembly.

“September Massacres” French mobs would attack prisons and murder clergy and nobility accused of political offenses. 1,200 prisoners killed.

National Convention (Sep. 1792) Election of new legislative body of radicals known as the National Convention. Radical Jacobins mainly in control of the government. Passed “suffrage” law, voting rights for all male citizens over 25. Abolished the monarchy. Established the French Republic.

Trial and Execution of Louis XVI King Louis XVI tried Dec. 11, 1792, of treason. Sentenced to death. Executed Jan. 21, 1793. Restated his innocence in his last words.

France at war inside and outside. France at war with Britain, Austria, Prussia, Netherlands, and Spain. Peasant rebellions led by clergy and royalists inside one region of France. Sans-culottes demanded relief from food shortages and high inflation. Political division in government between Jacobins and rival group, the Girondins.

The Committee of Public Safety 12 member Jacobin committee formed to save the French Revolution. Ruled like a dictatorship. Issued mass tax for the war effort. In charge of trials and executions.

French Army Victories The French Army learns new strategies to win battles. By 1794 they defeated the Netherlands and beat back the Austrians into Austrian-controlled Italy. Significant French victories allow revolutionary politics to continue inside France.

The execution of Marie Antoinette (Oct. 1793)

le Guillotine Instrument of execution used in France during and after the French Revolution. Named after a Committee member. Estimated 18,000-40,000 people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.

Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) Jacobin leader of the Committee of Public Safety. Known as “the incorruptible.” Believed in a “republic of virtue” that could only be achieved through the use of terror. “Liberty cannot be secured unless criminals lose their heads.”

Reign of Terror (Sep. 1793-Jul. 1794) Revolutionary courts conducted quick trials with death sentences. Estimated 300,000 arrested during the Reign of Terror. The French commoners enjoyed the spectacle of the guillotine executions but this would not last.

The government turns on the Committee of Public Safety. By mid-1794, the Convention turned on the Committee for fear of their own lives. July 27, 1794, Robespierre was arrested and executed the next day. Other radicals also executed bringing about a slow down of executions and the end of the Reign of Terror.